'Bout Time Somebody Said It: Jeff Foxworthy at the 2007 CMT Awards

As you may have already surmised from past postings, I generally like country music.

I didn't used to, though. There was a time, as an impressionable young lad, when I lived in Denver and swam among a more liberal school of fishes. As a result, I never had much use for the stuff at the time.
Don't get me wrong, now...I wasn't so bad that I particularly minded if someone else liked it, and wouldn't necessarily jump to switch the radio station if it was an alright song. I just didn't care for it much myself.

It's amazing how things change when you become a daddy. It's a complete change of scenery.

For one thing, you start noticing with a fresh set of ears and eyes -- at least, I did -- that the list of things that you enjoy, and the list of things you wouldn't want your kid getting involved with just yet, are starting to become the same list.

And I also started noticing that country music -- you know, all that twanging and stuff made by a bunch of backward hicks that can't "keep up with the times" -- wasn't sounding quite so "backward" as I had previously thought.

If I'm boring you with all this, I apologize. I'm not all that good at describing this kind of experience. I guess it just took me a while to recognize the good stuff when I hear it.

Thankfully, there's people around like Jeff Foxworthy, who's known about this stuff all along...and, if his recent speech at the 2007 CMT Awards is any indication, is a LOT better at articulating what it's all about.

Bryan over at Hot Air has the goods. Go give it a listen. It's worth the trip...and goes further than anything else I've heard towards explaining country music's huge upswing in recent years.

'Bout time somebody said it.